By Amin Kef Sesay
According to majority of residents hailing from Sambaia Bendugu Chiefdom in the Tonkolili District, Northern Sierra Leone, the 3rd June 2021 Paramount Chieftaincy election in that part of the country ,which saw the election of Hon. Alhaji Musa Bamba Foray Jalloh, commonly known as Musa Bendugu, was in its entirety marred with so many irregularities and interference by certain Government officials to such an extent that they are left with no option but to challenge the outcome. They said they are calling for President Bio’s intervention in order to ensure that justice prevails adding that it is their strong conviction that power belongs to the people.
In a Press Release dated 8th June 2021, having the name of Joseph Foday Sankoh as contact person, with the following Email Address: chiefdomsambaia@gmail.com it was stated that all the children and grandchildren, including the residents of Sambaia Chiefdom, both at home and abroad, are deeply saddened and surprised by the fraudulent election that the SLPP Government conducted in Sambaia Bendugu on the 3rd June, 2021.
The Release continued by stating that the SLPP party has stripped the ancestral rights from the children and grandchildren of late P.C Alimamy Kulio Jalloh II maintaining how the late man was the one who constructed the SLPP party in Sambaia Chiefdom.
“He was also an Honourable Member of the Parliament in Tonkolili District during our battle for independence,” it was disclosed the author (s) going further to disclose how he served and built the party with his colleagues, Sir Milton Margai and Albert Margai, and faithfully continued to serve his party until his death on the 17th October, 2017 adding how he encountered so many opportunities and temptations to switch parties, but refused saying he was a man of principle.
“Therefore, we humbly ask all SLPP party members to put themselves in our family’s position,” it stated referring to the Kulio Jalloh family.
Also contained in the Release is a question asked: “How would your family endure if the party that they worked and served all of their lives for, betrayed and stripped their children and grandchildren’s ancestral right to become Paramount Chief in their own chiefdom?”
It added that instead, they imposed a man that has no right to become a chief in Sambaia chiefdom further lamenting that the SLPP has decided to play politics stating a warning to keep in mind that “as a man sows so shall he reap”.
The Release ended by stating that all cannot live on this earth forever and asked a question: what will our legacy be when we are gone?
Speaking during a Press Conference, one of those who declared his intention to aspire but who was disqualified, Col. Sheku Jalloh, expressed disappointment at the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development for , what he termed as the poor and unconstitutional conduct of both the declaration and the entire electioneering process in Sambaia chiefdom.
He noted that on the 5th May, 2021 a timetable was released by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development for the conduct of a declaration and an electioneering process for few selected individuals for Chiefdoms in the country including Sambaia Chiefdom. Sheku Jalloh furthered that according to the said timetable the 17th May 2021 was set aside for a declaration and the 3rd June 2021 for the conduct of the election respectively for Sambaia Chiefdom.
Sheku Jalloh added that on the 17th May, 2021 the Provincial Secretary-North, who was at the same time the Returning Officer led a team to conduct the election stating how the process was not done in line with existing laws.
He further disclosed that it was against such a backdrop that they wish to tender a complaint for appropriate action to be instituted in order to right the wrong.
Sheku Jalloh said the LUC and other armed Police personnel failed to provide the requisite community policing as the Court Barray was not well fortified and that tribal authorities were not allowed entrance as well as legitimate players were also denied entrance, adding that the entire exercise was stage managed and violent as a result of the influx of strange youths who were allowed to gain entrance into the Court Barray.
Mohamed Jalloh, who was also another aspirant, said he noted that when the 17th May 2021 was selected for the declaration of aspirants they were very happy but said they were also disappointed due to the way the declaration was conducted as the tribal authorities as well as some of the legitimate aspirants were not allowed access to the Court Barray, adding that the entire process was flawed.
He said that during the declaration, Hon. Alhaji Musa Bamba Foray Jalloh, commonly known as Musa Bendugu, was declared eligible on May 17, in Bendugu town, the chiefdom’s headquarter town, and joined nine others.
“Alhaji Musa Bamba Foray Jalloh, a sitting MP representing SLPP – the ruling party – in Constituency 056, was controversially declared qualified, after a tense declaration of rights ceremony,” he continued to inform adding that he was the only MP from the ruling party in the entire Tonkolili district.
According to him, initially, Jalloh and 14 others vied for the Paramount Chieftaincy but only ten were declared eligible by the Northern Region Provincial Secretary, Simeon Fatoma.
It was further understood that the five disqualified aspirants by tribal authorities couldn’t be linked to any of the chiefdom’s ruling houses but Alhaji Musa Bamba Foray Jalloh, after several arguments, and 9 others were declared eligible candidates.
This medium also understood that he was declared eligible to contest for the Chieftaincy under the Baimba Yiria ruling house one of two ruling houses known to have existed in the chiefdom before 1961.
The other house is Yabiya ruling house.
Musa Bendugu claimed his late father, Bamba Foray Jalloh, was the son of the late PC Alimamy Kulio I.
During the declaration, in the presence of hundreds of tribal authorities, the MP claimed he was the brother of the late PC Alimamy Kulio 2, a claim that was dismissed by another aspirant from the same ruling house. However, he was controversially declared qualified to contest under that ruling house.
One Sama Kulio Jalloh, who claims to be a member of the house the Musa Bendugu is claiming to be from, said the MP is not qualified to contest under their ruling house.
According to him Bendugu is not a great grandson of late PC Alimamy Kulio 1 as he claimed to be, further revealing that he was not even from the Kuranko tribe – but from the Kono tribe, who came to Sambaia Bendugu chiefdom.
The MP’s father, Sama Kulio Jalloh continued, can only claim his lineage in the chiefdom maternally.
The Jalloh clan, from the Kuranko ethnic group, are known and believed to be the rightful owners of the Sambaia Bendugu chiefdom chieftaincy, according to chiefdom elders.
In spite of all the controversies surrounding the Paramount Chieftaincy election, however, Musa Bendugu finally emerged as the winner. For now a cross section of residents of the chiefdom are expressing their disappointment over the conduct and the outcome of the process.
Some of them claimed that most of the people in the courthouse were not tribal authorities thus, were not in a position to determine who was qualified or not.
They intimated how tribal authorities are mandated to vet any aspirant’s claims of a ruling house – before being declared eligible to contest.
It was also disclosed that he was the only participating candidate on the ballot box at election time because all of the other nine candidates boycotted the elections – asking their supporters to do same.
The crux of the matter is that ten candidates, on May 17, were declared eligible to contest the Chiefdom’s Paramount Chieftaincy, regardless, none but one showed up at the voting center in Bendugu town to cast votes.
Key stakeholders from the Chiefdom, who willingly talked to this medium, said they have already sought for redress in the court by petitioning the outcome of the election.
Efforts made to contact Alhaji Musa Bamba Foray Jalloh in order to get his own side proved futile.
Our right have been trampled upon .
H. E . let Justice prevail